


Gray Area

by inkbert



Series: we'll get there fast, and then we'll take it slow [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alliances, F/M, Humor, Sam is a Little Shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 12:02:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7221583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkbert/pseuds/inkbert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 'Casa' one-shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gray Area

It’s not often that only two of the team get sent out anymore. And when that does happen, it’s usually Nat and Clint. More often than not though, someone else comes along for the ride as surveillance, back up, or at least someone who wants Cambodian food while they’re there.

It’s different then, ending a mission with only Nat at his side. He worried at the beginning, when they’d first returned from vacation, and their relationship had changed, about becoming distracted on-mission, about his feelings interfering with what needed to be done, about not being able to handle it.

Post-mission, he’d tried to fight the near-compulsive need to study her, the way she’s walking, the tilt of her shoulders, the tightness of the skin around her eyes. Until he’d realized she was watching him the same way in the reflection off the glass front medical refrigerator.

Normally Clint is with them, and Clint knows Natasha so well in a way that Steve is sometimes jealous of, but always thankful for. Sometimes Clint just sits next to her in silence, and Steve sees her shoulders loosen in tiny increments. Other times, when Steve expects silence, Clint cracks a stupid joke, and Natasha’s severe expression breaks to dart a judging look at the archer.

Now it is only Steve. But the gait he knows so well is smooth. Her expression is smug, competent, and relaxed. The mission had gotten a little hairy, but nothing Natasha couldn’t handle.

“In and out, huh Cap?” She passes him, headed towards the cockpit.

“That was the general plan.” Steve follows her, flipping the switches behind her. She doesn’t turn back for them, either hearing them switch on or knowing that he’d do it.

“Take-off in sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight.” She takes the pilot’s seat, pulling the zipper of her tac suit down a few inches.

Steve takes the co-pilot’s seat and radios in, letting the tower know the mission was successful and they’re headed home.

They’re in the air, autopilot is on, and she stands to go to the back. Steve can’t stand it anymore, and before he really decides to do it, his hand is on her hip, stopping her between the seats.

After a second, her weight shifts, pressing more heavily into his hand. He knows this from the battlefield, has known it since the battle of New York, but now he knows it in other ways. Knows it for the unspoken permission, invitation, request that it is.

Shifting a little for a better grip, he lifts her, pulling her into his lap. She adjusts smoothly for his one-armed lift. Steve wraps his other arm around her and lets his head fall back.

This is far better than the brush of her fingers against the back of his neck as she passes him, her normal private greeting during the post-mission come-down.

She leans her head back on his shoulder, and they both sit for a minute, until their breaths sync, and Steve feels the surge of adrenaline slowly begin to let up.

Natasha shifts, and Steve hears the beeps signifying she’d turned her phone off what Clint calls ‘ass-kicking mode’.

Natasha makes a small sound of annoyance, almost a groan. “Sam won game night. He sent pictures.”

“Is he wearing the crown?” Steve asks, but he lifts his head and open his eyes to look for himself. “Of course he is.”

Natasha uses her thumb to flick through the other pictures. Tony sulking by the dip. Pepper, Pietro, and Bruce with cards stuck to their foreheads.

“Water volleyball? They only played that since you weren’t there to keep Bucky in line.” Natasha scoffs, passing several pictures of the team playing in the wave pool. As the games progressed, the waves had been turned up. Natasha scoffs again, louder, when there’s a picture of Bucky clinging to the net, flirting with Darcy on the other side. “Was he like this before?”

Steve sets his chin on her shoulder. “Mmm. Yes and no. Dames were the real prize for him, so he never cared about making a fool of himself for one, about losing some contest if it meant he got the girl.”

“I’m not hearing the no.”

Steve shrugs. “With Darcy’s he’s...more. Never seen him like this before. Other girls, well, he never lead them on, but it was always for a day, a night. And he’d tease them a little, play hard to get maybe.”

“He’s playing the opposite of hard to get with Darcy.”

Steve bites her shoulder, hard enough to be felt through the tac suit. “You calling my best friend easy, Romanov?”

She shifts in a way that’s very deliberate. Steve checks the control panel, but everything is set. They’re good.

_Suck it! Suck it! Aw, yeah! Suck it! Suck it! Aw yeah!_

“How does he keep doing this?” Natasha jabs at her phone while Steve digs his out of his pocket to make Sam’s voice stop. A picture pops up on the screen of Sam pointing with both hands at his crown.

“He can’t win the next challenge. He just can’t.” Steve says, dropping his phone again. “I had a thought. That maybe we could work together to make sure he doesn’t.”

“Make an alliance you mean? That’s awfully shady for Captain America. You don’t think that would be cheating?” Natasha pins him with a look.

“It’s a gray area, but – No, you know what? Yes, an alliance.”

“How the mighty have fallen.”

“Gray. Area. What do you say? He can’t win again, he’ll be ten times worse.”

“I agree completely. That’s why I made an alliance with Thor.”

“What!? When?”

“Before we left the island.” If Steve didn’t like that arch tone of hers, and he really, really does, it would be annoying. In fact, when she pairs it, like she’s doing now, with that smug smirk, he finds he doesn’t mind it at all.

Something else he likes? The awareness that makes her eyes darker when she realizes just where his brain has gone off to.

A few days later, he heads for his second choice.

Jane is busy in her lab. He ends up chatting with Darcy for a while, and playing Mario Kart on the couch in the corner. When Darcy finally gets Jane to stop for lunch, Steve moves in.

He’s halfway through his spiel, trying to ease her into the idea, when Darcy holds up a hand covered in purple equations. Jane gasps and snatches it.

“Are you trying to make an alliance with her?”

“It’s a gray area.” Steve defends.

“Dude, Sam totally locked her down months back. We ate so good for weeks, he was sending sushi and pop tarts from Japan, and one time these cute little rice balls with icing whiskers.”

Fuck.

Steve smiles at Darcy.

“Pshhhh, after you just asked my friend right in front of me? You really are bad with women, Rogers. Besides, Bucky and I are going to crush you all with awesomeness.”

“You two are going to get distracted and make out in a closet until everything is over and I’ve already put out the fire on my own.” Jane mutters.

“One time, Janie. That happened one time.”

“Uh huh, do either of you know of any other alliances?” He tries to get them back on track. When he leans over to hand Jane a pen after she fails to find one in her hair, he feels a boxy lump under his couch cushion. He feels a smidgen of hope, but it's just Peppermint Dark Chocolate flavor, the worst of the Holiday Limited Edition pop tarts.

“Pepper and Pietro. They have breakfast every morning.” Darcy plops her foot in Steve’s lap. “Pietro is really rocking at the whole acquisitions thing. He found the designer of these sneakers. Pretty sweet, right?”

“And Wanda and Clint.” Jane murmurs, hurriedly scribbling on Darcy’s palm now.

Which only leaves... Tony and Bruce. Steve winces.

It’s only a short walk to the other labs. He doesn’t bother with the spiel.

“Have you two made an alliance for the next challenge?”

“Mmmmruph, miggle marghsh, shiva marmmph, ap.” Tony says around the wrench in his mouth.

Steve looks to Bruce.

“He says, chill out. It’s a gray area, Cap.”

His own damn team, and he’s the one left without an alliance.

Maybe it is time to consider adding someone to the team. Who was that guy Clint had been talking about? Shrinking could actually be really useful during a challenge. And for the Avengers, of course.

Plus! Sam hates that guy for some reason, and Steve is pretty sure there’s a story there. Normally he’d let it go-

_Suck it! Suck it! Aw ye-_

Steve stares down at his phone.

 **Sam:**  
_Found the last gingerbread pop tart! Sucks for you losers!_

Seriously? The gingerbread flavor is Steve’s favorite! He’s been searching for them for weeks, and he’d begun to suspect Tony had just made up the ‘last packet’ to screw with him.

  
_Suck it! Su-_

  
**Sam:**  
_Seriously, so delicious. You don’t know what you’re missing. Oh, wait. Yes you do._

  
Clint comes barreling around the corner. “I’m gonna kill him!”

What did Sam call that guy? Tic Tac? Steve starts jogging to catch up to Clint. 

  
_Suck i-_

  
**Sam:**  
_Lololololololololol_

 


End file.
